Control of pathogenicity and disease specificity of a T-lymphomagenic gammaretrovirus by E-box motifs but not by an overlapping glucocorticoid response element.

Abstract

Although transcription factors of the basic-helix-loop-helix family have been shown to regulate enhancers of lymphomagenic gammaretroviruses through E-box motifs, overlap of an E-box motif (Egre) with the glucocorticoid response element (GRE) has obscured their function in vivo. We here report that Egre, but not the GRE affects disease induction by the murine T-lymphomagenic SL3-3 virus. Mutating all three copies of Egre prolonged the tumor latency period from 60 to 109 days. Further mutating an E-box motif (Ea/s) outside the enhancer prolonged the latency period to 180 days, suggesting that Ea/s works as a back-up site for Egre. While SL3-3 wt, GRE and Ea/s mutants induced exclusively T-cell lymphomas with wild type latencies, mainly of the CD4+CD8- phenotype, the Egre as well as the Egre plus Ea/s mutants induced B-cell lymphomas and myeloid leukemia in addition to T-cell lymphomas. T-cell lymphomas induced by the two Egre mutants had the same phenotype as those induced by SL3-3 wt, indicating incomplete disruption of T-cell lymphomagenesis in contrast to previous findings for a Runx site mutant of SL3-3. Mutating the Egre site or Egre plus Ea/s triggered several tumor phenotype-associated secondary enhancer changes encompassing neighboring sites, none of which led to regeneration of an E-box motif. Altogether, our results demonstrate a role for the E-box, but not the GRE in T-lymphomagenesis by SL3-3, unveil an inherent broader disease specificity of the virus, and strengthen the notion of selection for more potent enhancer variants of mutated viruses during tumor development